Embodiments of the present inventive concepts relate to an apparatus for the heating of plastics material pre-forms. It is known conventionally for plastics material containers to be produced by plastics material pre-forms first being heated and then being shaped for example by a stretch blow moulding machine to form the plastics material containers.
For many beverages it is necessary to fill them under aseptic conditions. In this case it is known for plastics material pre-forms which are possibly contaminated by germs to be sterilized by a sterilization process upstream of the blow moulding machine. After that, the container can be transferred to the aseptic filling by way of an aseptic blow moulding machine. This sterilization of the plastics material pre-forms directly upstream of the blow moulding machine is subject to certain drawbacks, for example the complete removal of a sterilization agent before the shaping process, but in all events before the filling process.